A Fall River woman is facing charges that she dealt heroin out of her Jeep while her two young children were with her.
Quincy police had been investigating Angela Tantillo, 26, also known as Cocoa, over the past few months in suspected heroin dealing there, police said. Tantillo was arrested Wednesday and arraigned Thursday in Quincy District Court on trafficking charges. A not-guilty plea was entered on her behalf; her lawyer could not be reached.
On Wednesday, members of the Quincy Police Drug Control Unit spotted Tantillo’s blue Jeep on Garfield Street at 3:15 p.m., and followed her to an auto body shop on Water Street, where police say she made a suspected drug deal, according a report filed by Quincy police Detective Karyn Barkas.
Detectives continued to follow Tantillo, Barkas wrote, and later watched as she exited the Jeep in a pancake house parking lot on Parkingway and allegedly sold what they believed were drugs to the driver of another vehicle, Michael J. Quigley, 23, of Weymouth.
When officers confronted Tantillo, she allegedly told them “[I] knew I shouldn’t have come here today,” Barkas wrote in her report. “I knew I was being watched.”
Then she wanted to be caught.
Tantillo also reportedly told a detective that Quigley was her cousin and that “he’s been sick and I came to give him some heroin,” the report stated.
Tantillo’s 10-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son were in the Jeep with her at the time, according to the report.
Captain John Dougan of the Quincy police said the state Department of Children and Families placed the children in an emergency residence.
Police found 10 small bags of suspected heroin and another bag holding 16 grams of suspected heroin in her bra, and more suspected heroin and $2,290 was found in her purse, according to the report.
Police also allegedly found needles, a tourniquet, cotton swabs, and a digital scale. The street value of the drugs was about $6,000, Dougan said.
“As a result of the Quincy drug control unit, we were able to get a supplier of heroin off of the streets of Quincy,” he said.
Tantillo faces charges of trafficking a class A substance, conspiracy to violate controlled substance laws, and child endangerment.
Quigley was charged with possession of a class A substance, conspiracy to violate the controlled substance law, and driving with a suspended license, police said.
A man who entered Tantillo’s Jeep while she was conducting the alleged drug deal with Quigley — identified as Michael H. Browne Jr., 23, of Quincy — was arrested on charges of knowingly being present where heroin is kept and conspiracy to violate controlled substance laws, police said.
Not-guilty pleas were entered for both men Thursday in Quincy District Court, and they were released without bail, according to court records. They are scheduled back in court Jan. 14, as is Tantillo, who was on probation on previous drug charges when she was arrested on Wednesday.
